


For My King

by Sir_Bedevere



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Implied Relationships, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-24
Updated: 2013-01-24
Packaged: 2017-11-26 18:03:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/652955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sir_Bedevere/pseuds/Sir_Bedevere
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He wrote to his king too, when he was at White Harbour</p>
            </blockquote>





	For My King

For my king, my Lord Stannis,

I wondered, my lord, for a long time whether it was proper for me to write to you like this. I have had much time for thinking, here in this cell, and much time for writing. If Maester Pylos could see me now…but I must not think of that. I must not think of home. My wife and sons will receive letters, and I hope they will go some way towards easing the pain of my death. I hope, as much as I dare hope, that my counsel has meant enough to you that you should require a statement from me as well. If I am wrong, if I have been seeing things that are not there all this time, I beg you to burn this before you have read any further. You do not need to hear the ramblings of a half mad servant.

Because I do feel mad here, my king. Lord Manderley says one thing and does another and I cannot decide what that means for me. I am well fed, allowed to write and given books to read should I wish, but I am a prisoner nonetheless and the Freys bay louder for my blood every passing day. My only true friend, it would seem, is Lord Manderley’s little granddaughter. She reminds me of my princess Shireen, if I may be so bold as to make a comparison – there is a strength about her often lacking in one so young. Robb Stark’s death seems not to have shaken her loyalty to the northern cause one bit. Her grandfather seems fond of her; if only she were fifteen years older, he might have joined our cause at once instead of playing this ridiculous game. 

Perhaps I have been wrong about everything this whole time, and perhaps my gods are nothing more than the terrible things Lady Melisandre calls them. Do not think me too foolish, my lord, if she is right and I am wrong. My gods are all I have ever known. There is only one thing I have believed in more than I believe in them, and that is you, my king. Only you. I believe in you. I have many doubts, your grace, about so many things that have happened and so many things that might still come, but I do not doubt you. I will be killed, I am almost sure of that, but I know you will fight and fight for what you are owed and I am sure you will win. You will sit the Iron Throne and your daughter will be queen after you. In this I believe.

If you have read this far, my lord, then I can only suppose that you have some interest in what I have to say. Perhaps you will still think me above my station and I suppose I will never know. Sometimes, even after all these years, I still do not know what is expected of me. You can take the man out of Flea Bottom but you can never take Flea Bottom out of the man, not in the deepest parts of who he is. I hope I have served you well, your grace, not only because you are my liege but also because I have wanted so badly to lighten your burden. From the moment I first saw you, the starving boy in Storm’s End with the lives of so many weighing on your shoulders, I wondered how one man could bear so much. I still wonder, on those days when there is nothing I can do to help you and can only watch you fight like a man drowning. I mean no disrespect, in comparing you to someone in so dire a situation. I only mean that I’ve seen many a man fight for his life before, fight against the currents, but you’re the only one who survives. 

When I think of those days, the days that seem as though they were only yesterday, I can hardly imagine that so much time has passed. I can hardly imagine that my Devan will be a lord and the two little ones never have need to worry about where the next meal is coming from. My oldest boys, whilst they were living, were captains in the royal fleet. _Captains_. I never could have dreamed of such a thing for my sons and I want you to know that I do not blame you for their deaths. They believed in you or they never would have served you. They knew their own minds, as well as I know mine. I miss them every day, I will not pretend that I do not, but perhaps I am going to meet with them soon, somewhere beyond this life, and such a thought eases my mind. If it is not too much, I hope that I can ask you to watch over Marya and my sons. Devan will need help to be the sort of lord to make you proud, but I have no doubt he will make a better job of it than I ever did. People will love him, perhaps even as much as I have loved you. 

I _have_ loved you, your grace, and at the hour of my death I am not as afraid for you to know it as I have been before. I have loved you as the man who raised me from wretchedness, as the man to whom I owe my success, as the man who could have killed me but instead let me live. I love you as my lord, my king and, most importantly, as my friend. Sometimes, in the quiet of a night before a battle or the exhaustion of a night after one, I believe I have loved you as…but that is not important, my lord and something stays my hand. They are not important at all. I would have done anything for you, followed you off the edge of the world if you had commanded and into the Seven Hells on nothing more than a nod of your head. As it is, I hope I have served you well enough that you believe what I say here, and now I sign off before I begin to lose myself in the words I will never be able to say to your face.

I may meet my sons in a world beyond this and, if I do, rest assured my lord that one day, perhaps, you and I may have the same fortune. Until then, goodbye and good luck.

Your servant,  
Davos Seaworth

**Author's Note:**

> I've been sitting on this for ages. It's not very long I know but I reworded and rewrote bits of it over and over again. It just wouldn't leave me alone.


End file.
